The Crowdfunded Hardware Ecosystem | TechCrunch

To save this post, select a stash from drop-down menu or type in a new one:

443 hardware projects have ever raised more than $100k on the crowdfunding platforms.

In fact, while home 3D printers have been wildly popular in terms of dollars raised, the category is also the most crowded with 47 3D printing companies having gone on to raise $100K or more in crowdfunding.

Likewise, there have been 34 hand/wrist wearable crowdfunded companies at that level. The outlier in terms of average dollars is the gaming category, owning huge campaigns at OUYA ($8.6 million), Oculus VR ($2.4 million) and Virtuix Omni ($1.1 million), suggesting if you win over the hearts of gamers, they’ll open their wallets.

Not faring so well are the medical devices, kid-focused products and flying objects categories. Medical devices are naturally limited due to the fact they have historically not been allowed on Kickstarter and the children’s category has been difficult to build businesses in. The fact that drones and UAVs have not garnered much traction is surprising given the investor interest here. Perhaps the majority of drone companies are too commercially focused to be good targets for crowdfunding.

There are lots of categories between these bookends. The distribution of dollars suggests that the long tail in the hardware category is quite long: 43 percent of all dollars raised were from the 37 projects that surpassed $1 million in total crowdfunding. The remaining 368 projects made up 57 percent.